{"id":43,"date":"2021-04-13T12:23:21","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T19:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/blog\/?p=43"},"modified":"2021-08-26T10:16:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T17:16:59","slug":"12-bar-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/12-bar-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Levels of 12 Bar Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guitareo.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/email-images\/2020-12\/10-levels-of-blues-chords.pdf\" class=\"download-button\" rel=\"noopener\">Download PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Blues music is an expression of strong feelings and emotions. But what\u2019s going on between each chord change in a blues song that evokes those feelings?<\/p>\n<p>In this lesson, Ayla Tesler-Mabe goes through the ten different levels of playing a twelve-bar blues song on guitar. She delves into each chord in the song, the notes within them, and explains the meaning of various terms you\u2019ll hear, such as <em>harmonic functions, tritones, and turnarounds<\/em>. If you\u2019ve played the blues before, this lesson may help spice up your guitar sound. Additionally, if you want to start learning to play blues songs, you\u2019ve come to the right place.<\/p>\n<p>In a very small nutshell, here\u2019s what each level looks like:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 1:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe simplest approach in playing a twelve-bar blues as you\u2019re only switching between three open dominant chords.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 2:<\/strong><br \/>\nReplace the open chords with their bar chord predecessors to get different voicings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 3:<\/strong><br \/>\nEnd the progression with an augmented chord to get a cool transition into the beginning of the song.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 4:<\/strong><br \/>\nShake things up again by changing the way you play the dominant chords in the song\u2019s chord progression.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 5:<\/strong><br \/>\nAdd a diminished chord to the mix to which Ayla describes as a \u201cclassic blues move.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 6:<\/strong><br \/>\nHalfway through and we\u2019re getting jazzy! Add a new interval that will bring more sophistication to your guitar sound.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 7:<\/strong><br \/>\nThrow in a <em>turnaround<\/em> in the chord progression to get another cool transition into restarting the song.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 8:<\/strong><br \/>\nReplace your dominant chords with a <em>tritone substitution<\/em>. PS &#8211; this level is easier to play than the previous level&#8230;your fingers will thank you!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 9:<\/strong><br \/>\nIncorporate different <em>tritone substitutions and re-harmonizations<\/em> to the song.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Level 10:<\/strong><br \/>\nJust play guitar but really FEEL what you\u2019re playing!<\/p>\n<p>No matter which level you\u2019re on in playing the blues on your guitar, you\u2019ll be able to see your progress and continue in the right direction for more success in this style of playing. Eventually, you\u2019ll start pouring your whole soul into every strum and chord of the song.<\/p>\n<p>Make sure to click the button under the video to get the PDF chord charts so you can follow along with Ayla!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ayla Tesler-Mabe goes through the ten different levels of playing a twelve-bar blues song on guitar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitareo.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}